sheepe

"Gladly," said he, "what ever such like paine Ye put on me, I will the same sustaine: But gladliest I of your fleecie sheepe (Might it you please) would take on me the keep. 290 For ere that unto armes I me betooke, Unto my fathers sheepe I usde to looke, That yet the skill thereof I have not loste: Thereto right well this curdog, by my coste, (Meaning the Foxe,) will serve my sheepe to gather, And drive to follow after their belwether."

1591, Edmund Spenser, The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, Volume 5

The grasse and herbe doth fat sheepe in very short space, proued by English marchants which haue caried sheepe thither for fresh victuall and had them raised exceeding fat in lesse then three weekes.

1598, Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation, Vol. XII., America, Part I.

Nay, Number it selfe in Armies importeth not much where the People is of weake courage: For (as Virgil saith) It never troubles a Wolfe, how many the sheepe be."

1756, Prosper Paleologus Constantine, Sir John Constantine

Hen. VIII. (Black letter), in Bodleian Library, occurs:-- "There was two men of _Gottam, and the one of them was going to the market to Nottingham to buy sheepe, and the other came from the market; and both met together upon Nottingham bridge.

1850, Various, Notes and Queries, Number 59, December 14, 1850

And when th'art wearie of thy keeping sheepe Upon a lovely downe, to please thy minde, Ile give thee fine ruffe-footed doves to keepe, And pretie pidgeons of another kinde: A robbin-redbrest shall thy minstrell bee, Chirping thee sweet and pleasant melodie.

1594, Richard Barnfield, The Affectionate Shepherd